The Hindu 23.05.2013
Mayor’s mantra: restore lakes
Mayor Mohd. Majid Hussain on Wednesday called for
improvement of vegetation structure and water conservation measures at
the Mir Alam Tank.
It was also time the Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took up full-fledged restoration
of at least 10 lake projects on a priority basis to demonstrate as case
studies of restoration of water bodies.
Chairing the
first meeting of the newly-formed Greater Hyderabad Biodiversity
Management Committee in his capacity as the ex-officio chairman at the
Municipal Corporation head office, Mr. Hussain urged the officials
concerned to see that no sewage lines are connected to the water bodies.
The
Mayor and GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu were all praise for the
efforts of the urban biodiversity wing in evolving an action plan for
biodiversity administration which had helped achieve the 59-point score
in the City Biodiversity Index, up from 39.
Technical support
Mr.
Krishna Babu urged speeding up the process of constituting technical
support groups for conducting external evaluation of various urban
biodiversity initiatives besides consulting various national and
international organisations for financial support.
Experts
— S. Ashok Kumar, Dr. Y.N.R. Varma, Dr. Sulman Zafar Siddiqi, Dr. V.C.
Gupta, Karamtot Thara Bai and G.M. Ratna Kumari — suggested
development of more herbal gardens in the city and planting of more
medicinal trees during the greenery programmes. HMDA Member
(Environment) and GHMC Secretary also participated in the meeting as
special invitees.
The expert members have also wanted
developing a database based on the survey of the agencies/ industries
using local biodiversity resources for commercial purposes. The
committee had also designated Additional Commissioner (Urban
Biodiversity) N. Chandramohan Reddy as ex-officio member
secretary-cum-treasurer of the committee.
Majid Hussian chairs Greater Hyderabad Biodiversity Management Committee, harps on clean water bodies sans sewage lines.